By Gallego                                             H.B. No. 747
         76R3989 JRD-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to certain evaluations made by the governing body of a
 1-3     hospital district, hospital authority, or public hospital.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Section 1.03(a)(6), Medical Practice Act (Article
 1-6     4495b, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes), is amended to read as
 1-7     follows:
 1-8                 (6)  "Medical peer review committee" or "professional
 1-9     review body" means a committee of a health-care entity, the
1-10     governing board of a health-care entity, or the medical staff of a
1-11     health-care entity, provided the committee or medical staff
1-12     operates pursuant to written bylaws that have been approved by the
1-13     policy-making body or the governing board of the health-care entity
1-14     and authorized to evaluate the quality of medical and health-care
1-15     services or the competence of physicians, including those functions
1-16     specified by Section 85.204, Health and Safety Code, and its
1-17     subsequent amendments.  Such a committee includes the employees and
1-18     agents of the committee, including assistants, investigators,
1-19     intervenors, attorneys, and any other persons or organizations that
1-20     serve the committee in any capacity. The term "medical peer review
1-21     committee" or "professional review body" includes the governing
1-22     body of a public hospital owned or operated by a governmental
1-23     entity, the governing body of a hospital authority created under
1-24     Chapter 262 or 264, Health and Safety Code, and the governing body
 2-1     of a hospital district created under Article IX, Texas
 2-2     Constitution, in relation to the governing body's evaluation of
 2-3     the:
 2-4                       (A)  competence of a physician; or
 2-5                       (B)  quality of medical and health care services
 2-6     provided by the public hospital, hospital authority, or hospital
 2-7     district, to the extent the evaluation involves discussions or
 2-8     records that could identify an individual patient or physician.
 2-9           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
2-10     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-11     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-12     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-13     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
2-14     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
2-15     passage, and it is so enacted.